This article explains how to understand your employees’ overtime balance, and how to troubleshoot it if it’s incorrect.

This can happen if work schedules or time off settings aren’t set up correctly. You might notice unexpected deficit hours or overtime totals that don’t seem right. These errors can affect payroll and make it hard for employees to trust their attendance records, so it’s important to fix them.

Before you start

• Following the steps in this article might affect other employees’ overtime balance. Make a note of all the settings you edit as you go along, so you can revert them if needed.
• Make sure you’re familiar with the following concepts:

Access and permissions

You must be a Personio Administrator to follow the steps in this article.

Check how far back the issue goes

If several employees have an incorrect overtime balance, or if you suddenly see a very high amount of deficit hours, your default work schedule might have incorrect overtime settings. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Attendance.
2. Identify and click the default working schedule in the list on the left.
3. Scroll down to the Overtime and deficit hours section and check if the Deduct hours daily if no time is tracked setting is enabled.
4. If it is, contact customer support. We don’t recommend enabling this setting for your default work schedule, and our agents can help you set this up correctly.
5. If it’s not, move to the next section.

Check your default work schedule

If several employees have an incorrect overtime balance, or if you suddenly see a very high amount of deficit hours, your default work schedule might have incorrect overtime settings. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Attendance.
2. Identify and click the default working schedule in the list on the left.
3. Scroll down to the Overtime and deficit hours section and check if the Deduct hours daily if no time is tracked setting is enabled.
4. If it is, contact customer support. We don’t recommend enabling this setting for your default work schedule, and our agents can help you set this up correctly.
5. If it’s not, move to the next section.

Check the affected employee’s work schedule

If your default work schedule’s settings are correct, check the work schedule assigned to the affected employees. Follow these steps:

1. Go to the affected employee’s profile > Attendance and click the title of the work schedule widget in the top-right corner.
2. Make a note of the current work schedule name and effective date.
3. Go to Settings > Attendance and select the relevant work schedule.
4. Click the Edit button and double-check the working schedule days and times.
5. Scroll down to the Overtime and deficit hours section and make sure that:
   
   • The Calculate overtime setting is set to daily.
   • Both the Track deficit hours and Deduct hours daily if no time is tracked settings are active.
6. If everything is correct, move to the next section.
7. If not:
   
   1. Edit the settings and update the current working schedule. The system recalculates the overtime balance for the last three months for all the employees on this schedule.
   2. Check the updated overtime balance of the affected employee and other ones on this working schedule.
   3. If only the affected employee’s overtime balance is still incorrect, move to the next section.
   4. If other employees' overtime balances are incorrect, revert the changes and contact customer support.

Check the affected employee’s Attendance panel

1. Go back to the employee’s Attendance panel, and ensure the employee has been actively tracking time since the effective date of the current work schedule. Use the arrows in the top-left corner to navigate between months.
2. If they haven’t:
   1. Assign a schedule with the Deduct hours daily if no time is tracked setting disabled up to when the employee started tracking time actively.
   2. Assign a schedule with the same setting enabled from that moment on.
3. If they have, move to the next section.

Check your time off types settings

If the time off types your employee request have incorrect settings, this might affect their overtime balance. Follow these steps to ensure they are correct:

1. Go to Settings > Time off.
2. Click the first time off type in the list.
3. Scroll down to the Validity settings and ensure the Consider time tracked during time off of this type as overtime? is set correctly.
4. Repeat step 3 for all your time off types.
5. If the overtime balance is still incorrect, move to the next section. 

Check your employee’s time entries

If the steps above didn’t help you identify the root of the issue, checking your employee’s time entries in detail is the next step. Follow these steps:

1. Go to your employee’s profile > Attendance.
2. Click the title of the overtime widget.
3. Check the log. The table below these steps explains what each of the activities refers to.
4. Make a note of any anomalies, such as full working days in deficit or overtime. Ask yourself these questions, and double check with the affected employee:
   
   • Did you add or remove a public holiday to the calendar assigned to the office or company recently?
   • Did the employee forget to clock out or to track time on a specific day?
   • Did the employee track time on a day they were not working?
   • Were time off periods added or deleted?
5. If reviewing the log doesn’t explain the balance, go to the next section.

Contact customer support

If the steps in this article didn’t solve your problem, contact our Customer Support team and include the following information:

• When did you first notice the change?
• What timeframe does the issue cover?
• Which employees are affected?
• Are there more or fewer hours than expected?
• Have you changed or edited the employee’s working schedule recently?
• Have you edited your office or company’s public holidays?
• Have you edited time off types or periods?